Photo: Facebook
Appearing with little fanfare, Ennoia is the name of a new album featuring alt-country legend Bonnie Prince Billy. The singer born Will Oldham is always keeping busy, but here he’s adding his vocal tone to songs he didn’t actually write. Words and music were composed by American musician Jason Butler, who works under the name Thee Conductor.
Butler’s style is markedly different to Oldham’s, although they share a certain romanticism, and Ennoia is a successful meeting of worlds.
There’s no mistaking Oldham’s unique voice, and songs like ‘Landing in a Quiet Place’ feel like ones he would write, but that work is all Butler’s. The programmed drum loop is the main clue that he’s dabbling in a broader pool than your typical alt-country. On ‘Big Man’ it’s an insistent synth pulse.
Butler is clearly good at diverse arrangements, and he’s employed a malleable roster of talent for this album, including Glenn Kotche from Wilco on drums, and other players credited with string arrangements, ‘sound manipulation’ (whatever that might mean), and on the song ‘Love to Lockhart’, a harpist.
That one features some particularly Bonnie Prince Billy-esque sentiments, like “I know it’s tough when you’re tired, just let me in this once”. He’s especially good at the sense of pleading on that last line.
This is a release marked by eclecticism though, so a few songs later we’re in vaguely krautrock territory, with buzzing synths and clustered monotonal piano.
The pleasures of Ennoia are apparent; there are plenty of well constructed songs and lovely timbres, not to mention one of underground music’s most distinctive voices. It does feel slight though, and I struggled to latch onto any greater point or idea behind the album.
But you do get a sense of Jason Butler’s eccentricities, and while they’re not as enticing as Will Oldham’s, in the moment they do fine.
